The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-03-30
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"cOME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE
INTO THE ARK.

INTO THE ARK.
1t is Not Enough to Teach Your Children
Good Manners. Educate Them and Pro-
vide Literally for Them-You Are Re
sponsible for Their Souls Welfare.
DEs MONIES, Ia, March 27-The Rev. I.
DE Witt Talmage, ID. ID. preached in this city
this morning to vast congregation His
text was Genesis vii, /: @Come thou and all
thy house into the ark" The eloquent
preacher said:
We do not need the Bible TO prove the del
uge The geolOgist's hammer announces it.
Sea shells and marine formations on the top /
OF some Of the highest mountains Of the earth /
prove that at some time the washed /
over the top Of the Alps and the Andes. In /
what way the catastrophe came we know not |
Whether by the stroke OF a comet, or by |
flashes OF lightning changing the air into |
water, or by stroke of the hand of God, like |
the stroke Of the ak between the horns Of the |
OK, the earth staggered To meet the catas-
trophe God ordered great ship built. IL |
was 10 be without Prov, for 1t was TO SAIL to
no shore. 1t vas 20 be without helm. for no |
human hand should guide it. 1t was a vast |
structure, probably as large as two or three |
Cunnrd steamers. Ii was the Great Eastern |
of olden time.
The snip is done The door is open. The
lizards crawl in. The cattle walk in. The
grassboppers hop in. The birds fly in The
invitation goes forth 70 Noah: "COme thou
and all thy house into the ark" just
one human family embark on the strange
voyage, and ] hear the door slam shut a
great storm sweeps along the hills and bends
the cellars until all the branches snap in the
d.. ind
the moan OF dying world. The blackness
Of the heavens is shattered by the flare Of the
lightnings that look down into the waters and
throw ghastliness on the face of the mount
aims How strange it oozsl How sufocat-
ing the air seems! The big drops of rain
plash upon the upturned faces Of those who
are watching the tempest. Crash go the
rocks in CONFUSION. Boom go the burst
ing heavens The inhabitants Of the earth,
instead of fleeing 10 house top and mountain
top, as men have fancied, sit down in dumb,
white horror to die. For when God grinds
mountains to pieces and lets the ocean slip its
cable, there is no place for men 10 fly to. See
the ark pitch and tumble in the surf, while
from its windows the passengers look out
upon the shipwreck of "A race and the car
casses Of a dead world. Woe TO the mountains!
Woe to the seal
am no alarmist When, on Sept 20, after
the wind has for three days been blowing
from the northeast, you prOphesy that the
equInoctial storm is coming you simply state
fact not 10 be disputed. Neither am an
alarmist when say that storm is coming,
compared with which Noah's deluge was but
an April shower; and that it is the wisest and
safest for you and for me TO get safely
housed for eternity. The invitation that
went forth to Noah sounds in our ears;
"Come thou and all thy house into the ark"
Wen, how did Noah and his family come
into the ark Did they climb in at the win
dow or come down the roof No; they went
through the door. And just so, if we get
into the ark of Gods mercy, it viii be through
Christ the door. The entrance TO the ark of
old must have been very large entrance.
We know that it was, from the fact that there
were monster animals in the earlier ages;
and in order to get them into the ark two
and two, according 10 the Bible statement
the door must have been very wide and very
high So the door into the mercy Of God is
a large door. We go in, not two by two, but
by hundreds, and by thousands, and by mil
lions. Yea, all the nations of the earth may
go in ten millions abreast.
The door Of the ancient ark was in the side
So now it is through the side of Christine
pierced side, the wide open side, the heart side
that we en-er Aha the Roman soldier,
thrusting his spear into the Saviour's side,
expected only to let the blood out, but he
opened the way to let all the world in Oh,
what broad gospel TO preach If man is
about to give an entertainment, he issues one
or two hundred invitations, carefully put up
and directed TO the particular persons whom
he wishes TO entertain. But God our Father
makes a banquet, and goes ont 10 the front
door of heaven, and stretches out his hands
over land and sea, and with voice that pen
etrates the Hindoo jungle, and the Greenland
fee castle, and Brazilian grove, and English
factory, and American home, cries out:
HCome, for all things are now ready" 1t is a
wide doori The old cross has been taken
apart, and its two pieces are stood up for the
door posts, so far apart that all the world can
come in Kings scatter treasures on days
of great rejoicing. So Christ, our king,
comes and scatter the Jewels of
Heaven. Rowland / that he hoped
to get into Heaven I the crevices OF
the door. But he was TO, obliged thus to 60
in. After having preached the Gospel in
Surrey chapel, going up toward Heaven, the
gatekeeper cried: Lift up your heads, We
everlasting gates. and let this man come in Z"
The dying thief went in. Richard Baxter
and Robert Newton went in. Europe, Asia,
Africa, North and South America may yet
20 through this wide door without crowding.
Ho, every onei-all conditions, all ranks all
people Luther said that this truth was
worth carrying on ones knees from Rome to
Jerusalem; but think it worth carrying all
around the globe, and all around the heavens,
that "God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whatsoever be-
leveth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" Whoscever will, let him
come through the large door. Archimedes
wanted fucrum ON which TO place his
H. afI hail 10
the world. Calvary is the fulcrum and the
cross of Christ is the lever; and by that
power all nations shall yet be lifted.
Further, it is door that swings both WAYS
do not know whether the door of the ancient
ark was lifted or rolled on hinges; but this
door of Christ open both ways. 1t swings out
toward all our woes; it swings in toward the
raptures OF heaven 1t swings in to let in
it swings ont to let our ministering ones come
out All are one in Christ Christians on
earth and saints in heaven.
One army Of the living God,
At his command we bow;
Part Of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
Swing in, o blessed doorl until all the
earth shall go in and live Swing out until
all the heavens come fortk 10 celebrate the
victory.
But further, it is door WITT fsstenings.
The Bible says of Noah; THE lord shut him
in" A vessel without bulwarks or doors
would not be safe vessel to go in. When
Noah and his family heard the fastening of
the door of the ark they We're very glad.
Without those doors were fastened the first
heavy surge Of the sea would have whelmed
them; and they might rs well have persisted
outside the ark inside the ark. The lord
shut him in" Oh, the perfect safety of the
ark! The surf of the sea and the ightnings
of the sky may be twisted TO garland Of
snow and fire-deep to deep, storm to storm.
darkness to darkness: but once in the ark, all
Is well. God shut him in"
There comes upon the good man a deluge of
financial trouble. He had his thousands TO
lend; now he cannot borrow dollar. lie
once owned store in New York, ard had
branch houses in Boston, Philadelphia and
New Orleans He owned four horses, and
employed a man TO keep the dust Off his
coach, phaeton. carriage and curricle; now
he has hard work to get shoes in which to
walk. The great deep of commercial disaster
was broken up, and fore and aft, and across
the hurricane deck, the waves struck him.
But he was safely sheltered from the storm.
@The Lord shut him inr A food of domestic
troubles fell on him Sickness and bereave-
ment came The rain pelted. The winds
blew. The heavens are afame. All the gar
dens Of earthly delight are washed away. The
fountains of joy are buried fifteen cubits
deep. But, standing by the empty crib and
In the desolated nursery, and in the dole
full hall, once airing with merry voices,
now silent forever, he cried: ~The Lord gave,
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name Of the Lord' aThe Lord shut him in y
All the sins OF a lifetime clamored for his
overthrow The broken VOWS, the dishonored